These days, directive leadership tends to be out of fashion, with many experts promoting a more egalitarian management style. Yet directive leadership has its time and place, according to research dating back decades.
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leadership styles
What are Leadership Styles in Negotiation?
When old business models no longer serve us well, strategic leadership styles are needed to adapt to new times and conditions.
While the advantages and disadvantages of leadership styles are not always readily apparent, one thing is sure – being decisive while avoiding autocratic leadership tactics is necessary for successful leaders and negotiators alike.
Especially when the future remains out of focus, effective leadership often means recognizing that refusing to change is likely the riskiest option of all. Strategic leadership styles may vary, but they almost always include inviting all relevant parties to contribute novel ideas aimed at creating value for all. Likewise, effective leaders bring a host of other issues to the table to identify overlooked opportunities and potential trades across issues.
Before that, however, a negotiator needs to be clear about their goals. A negotiator is only successful if they have a deep understanding of what they value, and an ability to convey it to their counterpart. Adapting one’s leadership styles in order to do this is essential, giving a negotiator the opportunity to know when to hold firm to a position and when cede it in the interest of gaining a stronger agreement.
Having the leadership skills to identify shared interests and identify the best different leadership styles to build them into an agreement often gets both sides to deliver on the terms of a deal.
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The following items are tagged leadership styles:
Paternalistic Leadership: Beyond Authoritarianism
What’s your first reaction to the concept of paternalistic leadership? If you’re new to the concept and from an individualistic culture, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, or many European nations, you might dismiss the idea out of hand. After all, paternalism connotes top-down leadership, an outdated and exclusionary male-centered viewpoint, and strict authoritarianism. … Read Paternalistic Leadership: Beyond Authoritarianism
Advantages and Disadvantages of Leadership Styles: Uncovering Bias and Generating Mutual Gains
The persistence of the so-called “glass ceiling” and salary gap between men and women is often chalked up to the fact that men historically have been more assertive about negotiating for higher salaries, promotions, and other contributors to career success..
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The Contingency Theory of Leadership: A Focus on Fit
When choosing our personal leadership style, we have many different models to choose from, including participative leadership, charismatic leadership, directive leadership, authoritarian leadership, paternalistic leadership, and servant leadership theory. Each leadership theory promotes a particular approach to running organizations, from involving employees fully in decisions to handing down directives. By contrast, the contingency theory of … Read More
Negotiation Analysis: The US, Taliban, and the Bergdahl Exchange
The exchange between the United States and the Taliban of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban leaders held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, represented the first public prisoner exchange of a US soldier in the thirteen year US involvement in Afghanistan. The background of the deal including how Private First Class Bergdahl (promoted twice to Sergeant … Read More
Leadership Styles in Negotiation: The Case of Ebay and Paypal
Having the leadership skills to identify shared interests and build them into an agreement often gets both sides to deliver on the terms of a deal.
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The Opposite of Autocratic Leadership Styles
While the advantages and disadvantages of leadership styles are not always readily apparent, one thing is certain – being decisive while avoiding autocratic leadership tactics is necessary for successful leaders and negotiators alike. Navigating these treacherous waters can be extraordinarily challenging, but it can also give rise to creative decisions that help resolve disagreements in … Read The Opposite of Autocratic Leadership Styles
Organizational Leadership: Negotiating Buy-In to Your Cause
During the Covid-19 pandemic, organizations and their leaders have faced unprecedented challenges that often cannot be fully met by going it alone. The story of how the Biden administration pushed pharmaceutical companies Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Merck to work together to ramp up vaccine production illustrates how organizational leadership can inspire new forms of … Read More
Leadership Styles in Crisis Negotiations
Since the start of the global economic recession in 2008, few issues have proven as explosive as the Greek debt crisis. The Greek government’s commitment to repay billions of dollars in loans has been a source of contention with creditors ever since a sizable bailout was issued in 2010.
… Read Leadership Styles in Crisis Negotiations
Strategic Leadership: Move Beyond the Status Quo
When old business models no longer serve us well, strategic leadership is needed to adapt to new times and conditions. This was true when entertainment-industry disrupter Netflix and two major U.S. theater chains tried to negotiate a wide theatrical release for The Irishman, the Netflix-financed Martin Scorsese film. Their impasse highlights the important role of … Read Strategic Leadership: Move Beyond the Status Quo
Bargaining at a Fever Pitch
Have you ever won an auction only to realize later that you overbid for the prize? In competitive bidding situations, it’s easy to get carried away in the heat of the moment and overpay. The Boston Red Sox 2006 procurement of Japanese pitching phenomenon Daisuke “Dice-K” Matsuzaka offers a lesson in keeping cool in these … Read Bargaining at a Fever Pitch
Negotiation Habits of Great Women Leaders
Pay inequities and a lack of great women leaders in upper management remain enduring problems in the workplace.
… Read Negotiation Habits of Great Women Leaders
Leadership Style Assessment: Road Map for Podemos in Spain
The skills required for honing an effective participative leadership style have a great deal in common with those used by good negotiators. Following the May 24, 2015 municipal elections in Spain, all of those skills are being put to the test. The elections delivered a stunning rebuke to the incumbent conservative Popular Party of Mariano … Read More
“Chasing Heroin” with Situational Leadership and Negotiation
Across the country, America’s leaders are waging a highly-publicized battle against a raging heroin epidemic. “Chasing Heroin,” an investigative report by Frontline, recently shed light on responses to the crisis, which currently contributes to over 27,000 opiate overdoses nationwide each year. What reporters found is that the best methods for combatting the problem have come … Read More
Conflict Negotiators Turn to Miss Universe
Opening offers lie at the heart of any successful negotiation. Here are four negotiation fundamentals that any negotiator should take to heart.
… Read Conflict Negotiators Turn to Miss Universe
The Leadership Styles of “Girls” at the Negotiating Table
In negotiations, strong, adaptive leadership styles are often learned and perfected away from the table. Lena Dunham is a hugely successful actor, writer, and director, but the creator of the HBO hit show “Girls,” is also a formidable negotiator.
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Negotiation and Leadership Skills: Jerry Brown Re-Frames a Deal at High Speed
Starting construction on an 800-mile rail network in the world’s 8th largest economy without the funds in place to finish the job may seem crazy, but in California Governor Jerry Brown’s case it was a calculated gamble by a seasoned leader intent on winning a long-term negotiation.
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Tough Negotiation Tips from Jennifer Aniston?
Fans of the television show Friends got a treat last month when Netflix made all 236 episodes of the blockbuster hit available to stream online. At first glance actors Lisa Kudrow, Jennifer Aniston and the rest of the star-studded cast might not be your first pick to peg as formidable negotiators, but at the height … Read Tough Negotiation Tips from Jennifer Aniston?